Category Archives: News

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Whenever I write something a little bit outlandish and possibly technically impossible, life goes and proves me right all along. Bit of a spoiler here, but in The A-List Family, there is a house collapse caused by the hubristic creating of layers of underground excavating. When I wrote the book, there had been various cases of street sink holes and huge subsidence caused by such work in London. But nothing … Read the full entry

It’s September, that traditional time of new stationery sets and pencil cases. And, in my case, gorgeous artwork for my new book, The Weekend Wives (to be publishe d Spring). What the wonderful team at Hodder have done here is maintain elements of my previous covers (such as the typeface used for my name), while giving it a different feel appropriate to the content of the book. I love that … Read the full entry

About few weeks ago I finished the draft of my new book and emailed it off to my agent and my editor. The process of sending your work for someone else to read has been likened to sending out your used underwear; it feels that exposing and intimate. Fortunately they both like it, which allays the mortification a bit. They both also promptly went off on holiday, which gives me a glorious hiatus when … Read the full entry

Today’s Daily Mail has a piece by me taken from a book called Things I Wish I’d Known: Women Tell the Truth about Motherhood, which is edited by Victoria Young and published by Icon Books. (Aside, it’s a really great compilation of essays and would make a great present for the thinking pregnant woman). The piece has a slightly more alarmist headline than I’d have chosen myself as I think the actual words … Read the full entry

Today’s Daily Mail has a piece that they commissioned me to write about clutter. I think I am one of their go-to people when it comes to marital disharmony and mess, which, although professionally rewarding, is domestically unnerving! Part of what The Pile of Stuff at the Bottom of the Stairs was about was the gap between how we want to live our lives based on some impossible image that we … Read the full entry

A few random thoughts and bits and pieces of news. Today I did my first ‘Google hangout’ for Telegraph Wonder Women. It was on the subject of paternity leave, something I haven’t had to think about for nigh on six years. My take was, broadly, that we should be thinking about what it’s for before we worry about how long it should be for. Then I guess we have to … Read the full entry

The property expert turned everything expert, Kirstie Allsop, has recently opined that it’s not worth girls going to university as they should just get really well paid jobs aged 18 and buy themselves some property in order to be in a good position to bag a boyfriend and birth a baby aged 27. By coincidence, the Sunday Times published a piece I wrote about whether, in these days of fees … Read the full entry

Thanks to the tireless work of Hodder’s lovely Becca Mundy and Karen Geary, there were loads of reviews of The A-List Family in both the national press and some of the web’s top book blogs. ‘Very funny,’ ‘hilarious’, ‘spot-on brilliance’ and ‘highly readable’ are just some of the highlights. All the reviews (even the less than utterly enthusiastic one) are linked to on my press page here.

My new book The A-List Family is out today. Publication day is a bit like a birthday in that it can feel stressful, exciting and a little bit embarrassing (especially if, like me, you do insist on putting sex scenes into your book). Yesterday, Twitter alerted to me to the fact that Jade Craddock from We Love This Book had reviewed the A-List Family. I felt quite shaky to click on the link. … Read the full entry

The A-List Family is out in May (April for those of an e-reading persuasion). The final cover design is not yet confirmed, but in the meantime, here is a picture of the proof copy which I think is very classy indeed. I love that turquoise and the its clean lines. Hodder always seems to avoid the cliche with their covers and I’m sure the finished product will be just as … Read the full entry

I’ve tried, but I can’t put it off any longer – it’s time for a new author photo. I hate them. Childbirth would be preferable and I think I probably look better in the throes of that than I do squinting and squirming into a camera lens. I worked in a newspaper office once and it was curious to see how many people there were wandering around the building who resembled … Read the full entry

I remember once discovering that a friend did her husband’s holiday packing for him. The toothbrush, the pants, the shaving foam, the extra-strength anti-perspirant. The works. I was shocked. It seemed both controlling and subservient to be taking over such a basic adult task. My friend seemed to be infantalising her husband and belittling her own time to take over what is a boring but essential task. Yes she was … Read the full entry

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About me

The Weekend Wives

Could your relationship survive living most of the week apart? Does absence make the heart grow fonder or is it out of sight, out of mind. Three women living the weekend wife life find that a part-time marriage can lead to full-time secrets. There is Saskia, apparently stalked by a mysterious woman from her husband's past - trouble is she finds it hard to ask him since he's living in LA. Emily is newly arrived in the village and full of enthusiasm, but Matt's return from London every weekend seems to bring with it more problems than solutions. And then there's Tamsin, who is suddenly transported back to a world of teenage love and lust when she stumbles across a children's book that seems to know more about her than she does herself.

The A-List Family

Published in May 2014, the novel tells the story of Anna, a young graduate who is employed to mentor/tutor Antigone, the daughter of a very starry celebrity couple. Through this she is drawn into the murky world of Lorston Gardens, where the stars and their staff conspire to make sure that nothing is what it seems to the outside world. At the centre of the house is poor Antigone, an eight-year-old whose fashion choices are scrutinised and bitched about by strangers.

Just Like Proper Grown-Ups

My new book is the story of carefree and single Tess who shocks her friends by announcing that she's pregnant and has chosen them as godparents. But each of them is facing their own battle with adulthood. There's birth, Botox and bad sex galore as all five friends discover that while growing old is inevitable, growing up is optional.

The Pile of Stuff at the Bottom of the Stairs

Mary Gilmour feels as though her life is going down a plug hole clogged with cornflakes and Play-Doh. Her job is part time but housework is full time, and she has no time at all for her two young sons. Mary is convinced that there is only one thing standing between her and organised contentment: his name is Joel and she's married to him. Since star charts have worked on improving the behaviour of their children, she designs an equivalent for her husband: a spreadsheet detailing every balled-up tissue, every sock on the floor, every wet towel on the bed. Although he has no idea of it, Joel has six months to prove that his credits outweigh his debits. Or else...